Health News Roundup: Hong Kong hunts COVID patient's contacts, orders cruise ship back to port; U.S. CDC backs previous advice for 5-day isolation; no test needed and more

Many Australians, already unhappy about long queues at public testing centres and a shortage of at-home tests, were further incensed when news broke that tennis world number one Novak Djokovic had been given a medical exemption to enter the country. Pfizer to supply U.S. with 10 million more courses of COVID-19 pills The Biden administration doubled its order for Pfizer Inc's oral COVID-19 antiviral treatment, the company and the White House said on Tuesday, providing the government a total of 20 million courses as it fights a record surge in COVID-19 cases.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Hong Kong hunts COVID patient's contacts, orders cruise ship back to port

Hong Kong health authorities on Wednesday began a city-wide search for the contacts of a COVID-19 patient and ordered a Royal Caribbean "cruise to nowhere" ship to return to port early. The global financial hub has stuck to a zero-Covid strategy by largely isolating itself from the world and enforcing a draconian and costly quarantine regime.

U.S. CDC backs previous advice for 5-day isolation; no test needed

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday backed its week-old guidance for people seeking to end their COVID-19 isolation at five days, adding they could take a rapid antigen test if they want to and can access one, but is not requiring that. The agency had been pressured by health experts to institute a test requirement after it cut in half its guidance last week for people to isolate after a COVID-19 infection to 5 days from 10. It said the move was based on the science around the transmission of the virus.

Tempers fraying in Australia as COVID-19 cases hit new records

Australia's daily COVID-19 cases hit a record high for the third consecutive day on Wednesday, further straining hospital resources and testing facilities as public anger grows over the handling of the fast-moving Omicron outbreak. Many Australians, already unhappy about long queues at public testing centres and a shortage of at-home tests, were further incensed when news broke that tennis world number one Novak Djokovic had been given a medical exemption to enter the country.

Pfizer to supply U.S. with 10 million more courses of COVID-19 pills

The Biden administration doubled its order for Pfizer Inc's oral COVID-19 antiviral treatment, the company and the White House said on Tuesday, providing the government a total of 20 million courses as it fights a record surge in COVID-19 cases. The White House now expects some 4 million treatment courses of the pills to be available by the end of January and 10 million by June, three months sooner than previously planned, according to an administration official.

India's new COVID-19 cases double in four days to 58,097

India reported 58,097 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, twice the number seen only four days ago, according to health ministry data, taking the total to more than 35 million. Deaths rose by 534, including the southern state of Kerala's updated death toll of 423, lifting the national total to 482,551.

U.S. finalizing purchase of COVID tests, to be distributed for free

The Biden administration is finalizing contracts for 500 million rapid COVID-19 tests that it plans to distribute for free to Americans who request them, spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Tuesday. The Omicron variant of the coronavirus has swiftly spread across the United States since its detection on Dec. 1, replacing Delta as the dominant strain and sparking a new wave of infections that pushed recorded daily cases near the 1 million mark on Monday.

U.S. reports nearly 1 million COVID-19 cases in a day, setting global record

The United States reported nearly 1 million new coronavirus infections on Monday, the highest daily tally of any country in the world and nearly double the previous U.S. peak set a week ago as the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant showed no signs of slowing. The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients has risen nearly 50% in the last week and now exceeds 100,000, according to data collected by Reuters, marking the first time that threshold has been reached in a year.

Japan's Okinawa sees doubling of COVID-19 cases, considers emergency steps

Japan's Okinawa region appeared to be the epicentre of a new coronavirus surge with cases more than doubling on Wednesday from the previous day, as officials considered imposing emergency steps to contain it. New infections in the southern prefecture jumped to about 600, an Okinawa official said, from 225 on Tuesday, its highest tally since when Japan was in the midst of its fifth and biggest wave of COVID-19 cases.

S.Korea to appeal court order exempting private schools from vaccine passes

The South Korean government said on Wednesday it will appeal against a court order to exclude private education facilities from a COVID-19 vaccine pass mandate, the first major legal tussle over vaccinations that have been widely accepted. A Seoul administrative court ruled on Tuesday that private education facilities such as cram schools, reading rooms and study cafes should be temporarily exempted from the mandate, granting an injunction requested by coalitions of private education providers and parents' groups.

COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy not linked to complications at birth - U.S. study

COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy was not associated with preterm delivery or underweight newborns, in a study published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday. Rates of preterm birth were 4.9% among more than 10,000 women who received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, compared to 7.0% for roughly 36,000 unvaccinated women, researchers said on Tuesday in The CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)